Luo Binghe has not been this helpless in years.

It was one thing to play nice among the disciples of Huan Hua Palace, when he had a clear goal in mind and, when the resentment boiling under his skin became almost too much to bear, he could console himself with the knowledge that, if he chose to, he could destroy any of the cultivators around him, easily.

He tries to fight back at first, assuming the same must be true here, but when it becomes clear that his demonic and spiritual qi alike have been deadened completely and he is as defenseless as he was as a child, he kind of shuts down. He stumbles along in hollow compliance as he's handed off to the soldiers.

Here, in the cargo hold of the boat, he's sat with his knees pulled up to his chest, head down. He keeps touching the stone embedded in his sternum through the fabric of the robe he's been given. When someone is pushed down opposite him, he looks up to stare fixedly at them with dark eyes.

"You came out of the crystal too," he says quietly. It's not really a question, but there's a beat before he says, "Do you think they're all dead?"

Everyone else, he means. From those worlds that seemed extinguished. It's not clear if he's seeking reassurance or not.

By the time his group are brought to the ruins, Luo Binghe has perked up a little. Internally, he's resolved that one way or another he will seize back the power he's earned. He's started privately cataloguing the faces of the soldiers who have been particularly brusque with him, so that if he encounters them later, he can return the favour, but for now, he needs to bide his time, and make sure they don't consider him a threat. Play the pig to eat the tiger. He's good at that.

In the meantime... he needs to know more about this place, and it won't do him any good to keep to himself, no matter how much he wants to.

He tries to keep himself in good spirits, or as good as can be reasonably expected given the situation; he manages a tired smile at the nearest of his fellow captives.

"I've never seen markings like this before," he says. "Have you? Do you think they might be some kind of writing?"

I'm up for whatever, feel free to hit me with something else if you want :> Brackets & prose are both fine, I'll match formats! PM me or drop me a line at ormery if you wanna work something specific out.